Ok, you guys! This is one of the final chapters of this MAJOR storyline! I bet you can guess where this will be heading.
Unlocking the Sacred Box Part Three
"SKYLER!" Po roared furiously. His sister timidly approached his throne and bowed before him.
"Yes, brother." She answered obediently.
"I cannot leave this world without burning some of the energy I am saving up. I need you and Chasm to get out there and aid the Rangers."
Sky looked up, confused. "The Rangers? Po, we are supposed to destroy them. They are the barrier that is shielding us from capturing Earth!" She exclaimed.
Po sprung up from his seat and growled. "Those pathetic brats are nothing compared to the power Buck has. Besides, that Sacred Box could be quite useful. Perhaps that could break through this so-called barrier that is blocking us from taking over the world. You and Chasm should enter the human world and fend off Rangers in case Buck fails."
Sky stood up and tried to reason with her brother. "Brother, if Buck unlocks the box, then-"
"JUST GO!" Po roared.
Sky sighed and nodded her head. "Yes, dear brother."
Max's father had woken up the following morning to the sun shining through the blinds of his bedside window. Bobby rubbed his eyes as they adjusted to the light. He sat up and looked over at his wife, who had been sleeping since she didn't need to get ready for work, as Mary worked from home as a sales representative. Bobby leaned toward his wife to lay a kiss on her lips, which brought her to moan and flutter her eyes open.
Mary smiled. "Do you have to do that every time you leave for work?"
Bobby pretended to look offended. "How dare you. Of course, I should. I am your big hunky hubby, after all."
Mary rolled his eyes and chuckled as she sat up. Her husband put an arm around her shoulders as she laid her head on his. "I'm glad you finally went to sleep, honey." He said.
Mary smiled before asking. "Have you heard from Max? I got a call from DJ's father saying that he had slept at their house the previous night."
Bobby silently cursed under his breath, debating whether he should tell his wife the truth about the previous night. But he couldn't. Throughout the past 20 years that he had been married to Max's mother, he never lied to her and kept anything from her, so it was painful that he had to hide his son's conflict and affairs from his wife.
He very reluctantly shook his head. "Not at all, but I am relieved that he is alright." He said.
Mary just sighed before making her way out of bed. "I'll just get breakfast ready." She said, but Bobby could not mistake the sadness in her voice.
The twins had taken their fight back to their home, arguing their way through the front door. Their aunt finally snapped and ordered the two to go grocery shopping together, hoping it would force them to make up with each other, but it failed. What made it even worse was that several customers at the grocery store were staring in confusion as the twins continued to bicker at the breakfast aisle.
"Sensei says we need to treat our bodies like a temple! You can't fight with your stomach stuffed with Fruity Pebbles." Donnie said incredulously.
Bonnie rolled her eyes as she put the box of cereal in the cart before pushing the cart forward, with her brother walking behind her. "Can't we just bend the rules a bit? It's not like one bowl is going to prevent me from fighting proficiently."
"There is a reason we have rules! You have teenagers who are out there drinking, smoking, doing all these horrible things."
Bonnie stopped and turned, looking at her brother with disdain. "How the hell can you compare me coming into OUR bathroom, me eating whatever I want, and me going out and living my life and hanging with my friends to drinking and messing up my whole life doing some stupid antics?!"
Donnie stomped his foot forward and spat out. "Because maybe you ARE stupid!" His voice echoed throughout the tiny store, for nearly all the other shoppers to hear. Some of them gasped in shock, others simply walked away to avoid the boiling conflict.
Bonnie took a deep breath in, frowning at her brother. Donnie knew the power in his words, as he swore he saw Bonnie's bottom lip tremble a bit before she turned around and continued moving with the cart. Donnie shook off his guilt. She'll be fine. He thought as he followed his sister. This time he was about 10 feet behind her. She probably needed to hear that...right?
Just then, a loud BOOM was heard from outside the market, catching everyone, including the twins, off-guard. Donnie and Bonnie looked over at one another and decided to ditch their car. The two sprinted down the aisle and toward the exit, As they ran through the automatic doors, they found the parking lot to be in a frenzy. People were either running scared or trying to drive away in their cars. A terrifying force was attacking the area, but who?
Then something caught Donnie's eye. "Look!" Bonnie's eyes followed the direction Donnie's finger was pointing toward and she gasp. They saw who they remembered Po's brother and sister terrorizing the shoppers outside. People were scurrying away from Sky as she violently waved her sharp fan at them, while Chasm was slicing the car with his staff. One SUV was flipped upside down. Chasm pointed his baton toward the vehicle and shot a burst of flame toward it. The car then exploded on impact. Buck then noticed the twins in front of the entrance and laughed.
"Well, well, well, perhaps we should have finished what we have started, shouldn't we?"
Both twins put on their fighting stances, staring at Po's siblings with contempt. Donnie cursed himself at the memories of meeting with Po, how Chasm was always the jokester but still managed to put up a fight during their 1-on-1 combat for practice. They knew Sky was perhaps the brains of the trio of siblings, and could easily outwit them, despite both twins having superior intelligence.
Bonnie and Donnie both pulled up their right wrists with their bracelets that were fused with their Gems. "Call into Combat!" The morphing sequence was then initiated. Donnie and Bonnie were both surrounded by green and white mists, respectively. When the mists deteriorated, they were in their Ranger suits. Just then, spirits of their zords, a Bat for Donnie and a Bear for Bonnie, came up from behind them like color-coded visible phantoms. The spirits
"Power Ice!" A visual of a blizzard swarm around White Ranger.
"Power Light!" The sun's beams emanated on the Green Ranger.
The two Rangers pulled out their staffs and charged at the two villains. Sky wasted no time and sped through the Rangers in a split second, slashing both of them with her fan along the way. Strangely enough, the twins just froze and felt nothing.
That is until Sky, with her back turned, flicked her thumb onto a mini-lever by the handle of her fan. That activated some sort of electrical interference that stunned the Green and White Rangers, before Sky turned and sped through the Rangers and back next to her brother, this time the twins felt the sharp impact of the fan and tumbled to the ground, both moaning in pain as smoke emanated from their suits.
The Green Ranger moaned as he struggled to get back onto his feet. "Ellie..." He spoke to his wrist communicator, "W need the others." But nothing came through just yet.
The White Ranger slowly got back onto her feet, clutching her right arm while still gripping her staff. "We do not need them. I got this." She growled before charging at Sky and Chasm.
Donnie reached with his hand to try and spot his sister. "Bonnie, no!"
"My staff is bigger than yours!" Chasm exclaimed as he thrust his staff onto Bonnie's abdomen, shaking her roughly from left and right. She grunted before looking up at the yellow-haired villain with a devious thought in her mind.
"Bear Mace!" She called out. Just then, her visor lit up and short a spritz of white mists onto Chasm's face. Chasm screamed as he felt like his face was being stung by dozens of bees. He stumbled backward, letting Bonnie free of his hold.
Sky came to her brother's aid, hissing at the White Ranger. She held her fan in anticipation of her next attack. "I'll take it from here." She said, before speeding toward Bonnie. However, midway through her attempted attack. A loud motor was heard from the far left edge of the parking lot. Sky looked over and gasp as a blue Jeep being to speed toward her, with what appeared to be the Yellow Ranger, fully morphed, in the driver's seat.
Maya rolled down her window and aimed her Cheetah Bow Gun, using her right leg to steer the wheel. She drove past Sky, missing her by a mere foot, but also shooting it with multiple blasts during that split second the two locked eyes with one another.
Sky let out a pained cry as she was hurled to the ground by the rapid blasts. "Dang it!" She called.
Chasm, still in slight pain from the White Ranger's mist attack, helped his sister up to his feet. "I think that is enough for today. Buck will thank us later." They both said before running toward the back of the parking lot and through a portal that closed briefly after they made it through.
The Yellow Ranger parked its car at a safe distance from where the battle took before exiting it and demorphing. Maya made her way to the Green Ranger, who was struggling to get back onto his feet. "You okay?" She asked.
Donnie just grunted before pulling his arm away. "I'm fine." He answered passive-aggressively before demorphing. He then glanced over crossly at his sister and called out. "You are that stupid, are you?"
Bonnie twirled her head around and exclaimed. "Excuse me?" She then demorphed, glaring at her brother. "You claim to be all tough a mighty, but unlike you, I stood a match against those two."
"Yeah for like a brief second," Donnie said bitterly, rolling his eyes YET again.
"Guys, can we not do this here?" Maya beckoned the twins. Previously, she was annoyed by the twins' constant fighting, but now it was concerning, since the team exercising their motto 'united we stand, divided we fall' had led them to several huge victories against the Humanitors. This fabric was what kept the team together. Now Maya was witnessing the deterioration of a relationship between a girl and her brother, which could not only break up whatever is left of their family but also be the catalyst that would soon destroy the Power Rangers.
Bonnie narrowed her eyes before taking a few steps toward her brother. "You think I can't fend for myself? Do you think I can't make it on my own? You think I NEED you?!"
Donnie bit his lip and breathed deeply through his nose. "I had mo you to put up more of a fight against the two."
"Eh-eh-eh-expectation?" Bonnie hysterically and sarcastically stuttered. "You think any parent would IMMEDIATELY expect twins? Mom and Dad never knew you were coming until THIRTY minutes after I was BORN!"
Maya gasped. "BONNIE!"
Donnie felt a pain in his chest from hearing his sister say something like that to him, but he still kept his ground. "I never asked for a sister." He retorted before turning around and walking away.
"Fine!" Bonnie retaliated before walking over to Maya's car. "I need a ride." She said to the girl's ear, her tail between her legs.
Maya let out a sigh in distress. It was bad enough that Max was going through so much and was on the brink of collapsing, combining that with Buck's latest scheme that could potentially pull through. The Hispanic girl didn't need to be caught in a middle of a firefight between two of her closest friends. She just hoped they would reconcile. After all, that's what brothers and sisters do after a fight, right?
DJ moaned as he fluttered his eyes open and glanced over at the clock on his nightstand, which read 11 AM. He cursed himself for staying up late working out and playing video games, but he figured since it was his day off from school he wouldn't have to worry about getting up on time anyway.
After getting dressed in a blue long sleeve T-shirt and purple sweatpants, and made his way down the steps and into the kitchen, where he found his father still in his robe, smoking a cigarette as he continued his work on his laptop. DJ was kind of stunned to see his father in the home. Sure, it was the weekend, but his father normally worked a lot at his marketing agency
DJ groaned. "Come on, Dad! Please go in the backyard. I hate the smell of tobacco!"
His father rolled his eyes before putting out the cigarette on an ashtray next to his laptop. "Where's Max?" He asked.
DJ froze. He had forgotten that Max had slept over at his house the previous night. "Where's who now?"
"Max...you know, your best friend? The guy that had been coming to this house for the past ten years? Whose father has been promoted to sheriff?"
"Oh, that Max," DJ nervously said before answering plainly. "He left."
"When?"
"Early in the morning," He replied, opening the refrigerator to fetch some iced tea.
His father began tapping his index finger on the table, not taking his eyes off his son. "You know, Bobby, Max's father and I went to the bar. Y'know, after we had a long hard day at our respective jobs, and claimed he and his son have been drifting apart. And on that note, I have realized Max's demeanor has changed drastically."
DJ finished pouring a glass of iced tea before glancing over at his father. "What point are you trying to make, Dad?" He asked, becoming agitated.
"Do you know something? Perhaps, someone like you would be concerned about their best friend?" His father replied, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow.
DJ sighed and tried to think of a reasonable excuse. Something that would sound believable and true, but also cover their major secret.
"Max is going through a lot. Have you heard of those monster attacks?"
His father nodded. Monroe was aware that a team of superheroes called the Power Rangers were battling a force that was threatening humanity. So far, resources have shown that the Rangers had successfully repelled any threats against the Earth so far. What Monroe DIDN'T know was that his son was one of those Rangers.
"Well, he had witnessed a traumatic scene. He was nearby when the Rangers were fighting a monster, and he had witnessed someone get hurt by debris. He felt mentally sick since then and had alienated himself from his family."
DJ bit his lip and crossed his fingers. He hoped to the lord himself that his father would buy his white lie. His father just sat here with a blank face for a minute. An AGONIZING minute, before letting out a deep breath.
"I hope he feels better."
DJ nodded his head, relieved that his father actually bought his white lie. "Yeah, I've been coming to his aid since then."
"You know, a buddy of mine is a psychologist and offers very cheap services. I can have you give Max one of his business cards."
DJ thought for a moment and figured Max would try to find an orthodox way of seeking help, while at the same time, hiding his double life as a Power Ranger. "Yeah, I guess that would be nice."
His father smiled at the boy. "You always seem to be there for him when he is down."
DJ smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "I mean...that's what friends are for, right?
"In all my years dealing with your crankiness, I always recognized you as someone with a heart of pure gold. You're a wonderful person, DJ. Don't forget that."
DJ chuckled. "Thanks, Dad...want a drink?" He asked.
"Sure, but after this last cig." His father sneered before pulling out his pack of cigarettes.
DJ groaned. "Come on, Dad!" Then suddenly, his phone rang in his pocket. He picked up and answered it. "Hello?" Ellie was on the other line, and she started speaking hysterically.
"What's wrong?" After a few seconds of hearing Ellie explaining over the phone, DJ's face turned grave before he hung up and exclaimed. "My friends need help. I'll be right back!" He then left his kitchen and out the front door, leaving his confused father behind.
He ran about a mile into the city, morphing halfway through his sprint. "Call into Combat!"
To be continued...
In the last chapter, it was determined that the only way Buck could unlock the Sacred Box is to obtain excess power from the Rangers. Guess where in this chapter he got more power from.
Also, both Buck and Max were wandering in the night. That's something to take into account as to why Ellie called DJ in a panic. Anyway, that's it for this chapter. See you next time!